Who Killed Jesus?:
Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus

John Dominic Crossan

Who Killed Jesus? is a study of the gospel accounts of the arrest,
trial, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. It is both a
popularisation of Crossan's earlier work The Cross That Spoke and a
response to Raymond Brown's The Death of the Messiah. As motivation,
Crossan argues that the anti-Jewish core of the passion narrative and
its use in subsequent history make careful study of its historicity
more than just an academic exercise. (He doesn't mention that the
faith of many conservative Christians depends on the historicity of the
passion narrative — but then perhaps he doesn't expect them to be
reading his book.)

Crossan begins by briefly describing the sources involved and his
understanding of their relationship to one another. He also explains
the key issues where he differs from Brown and the central points of
his reconstruction: the gospel narratives are largely "prophecy
historicized" rather than "history remembered"; they have only one
independent source; and that source is a Cross Gospel used by Mark (and
the other canonical gospels, who also used Mark) and still discernible
in the Gospel of Peter. Methodologically Crossan calls for
"consistently contextual" interpretation rather than "fundamental" or
"selectively contextual" interpretation. In a massively condensed
version of his earlier work The Historical Jesus, Crossan describes
the "the scene of the crime" and the background of Jesus' teachings.
He then goes through the different versions of the passion narrative in
detail — arrest, trial, abuse, execution, burial, and resurrection
(which Brown does not tackle).

The gist of his reconstruction is as follows: Jesus was seized and
executed as a result of overt action against the Temple. His betrayal by
Judas and the flight of his followers are probably historical, but there
was no trial before Pilate or Herod and none of Jesus' followers witnessed
his death; his body was most likely eaten by the dogs and crows. In an
attempt to come to terms with this, a "passion prophecy" was constructed
from scriptural models: the story of the trial was derived from Psalm 2;
the details of Jesus' abuse from prophecies in Isaiah and Zechariah and
a scapegoat ritual; the (hopeful) idea of his burial by enemies from
Deuteronomy 21:22-23; and the resurrection from stories of "innocence
vindicated".

This passion prophecy was the basis for a more accessible narrative
and it is this that survives, modified to varying degrees, in the
gospel accounts we have. Burial by enemies turned into progressively
fancier accounts of burial by friends; concerns of the early Christian
communities (in particular questions of authority) were written
backwards into different burial and resurrection accounts. Most
notably, early anti-Jewish sentiment produced the "innocent blood"
story and the stress on Jewish guilt and Roman innocence. (Crossan
calls this "the longest lie" and argues that, however understandable
its original construction, subsequent history makes its renunciation by
Christians essential: it is not enough to do as Brown does and describe
these components of the passion narrative as "not implausible", "not
unlikely", and "not totally lacking in verisimilitude".)

Crossan's reconstruction is complex (some will say contrived) and the
extent to which this is offset by its explanatory power is debatable.
The real question, however, is its relative plausibility compared to
alternatives. Conservative Christians who are prepared to face
historical reconstruction and to question the core of their belief will
find in Who Killed Jesus? a succinct and direct presentation of an
alternative to a literalist reading of the gospels. Crossan's
conclusions about the anti-Semitic components of the Christian gospels
will be important to some. Such high stakes may not be involved for
others, but the role of the passion narrative in Western art and
history should make its historical foundations of more than passing
interest even to non-Christians and Christians whose faith is
independent of particular historical events.